Experimental inhalation injury in the goat.

Inhalation injuries are usually produced by inhalation of gaseous or particulate products of incomplete combustion and are rarely due to heat per se unless steam is inhaled. The clinical and anatomic characteristics of an appropriate animal model should mimic the disease encountered clinically. A model of inhalation injury has been produced in anesthetized goats through the use of a modified bee smoker. The smoke is delivered at a low temperature and contains byproducts of incomplete combustion. This reproducible injury produces necrotic tracheobronchitis and bronchiolitis with pseudomembrane and cast formation in association with mild multifocal atelectasis and bronchopneumonia. These lesions spontaneously resolve within 3 weeks without supportive therapy. The upper trachea, protected from smoke injury by the inflated cuff of the endotracheal tube, showed no evidence of injury. This nonlethal injury is proposed as an appropriate model for evaluation of the pathophysiology and treatment of inhalation injury.